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Climate Change Bill [HL]
The government accepts that climate change is real and a challenge that must be faced now. The Bill aims to demonstrate the UK’s leadership on the issue by “setting bold targets and pursuing ambitious policies at home and abroad”.
The Bill creates a long-term legal framework to reduce carbon emissions in the UK to 2050. It will create a legally binding commitment to the government’s target of a 60 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050.
The Bill will also introduce five-year carbon budgets; establish a new independent climate change committee; and, require the government to set out a sustainable programme of adaptation.
The draft Climate Change Bill was published in October 2006 and set out the government’s plans for legislation. It came as the Stern review was published, offering an economic assessment of climate change and its potential impact on the UK.
Opposition parties are broadly in agreement with the need for legislation on climate change. There is disagreement, however, over the plans for five yearly targets with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats calling for annual targets to avoid “NIMTO” (not in my term of office) policymaking.
During second reading in the Lords, minister of state, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Lord Rooker noted the recently published report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which claims that without “effective international reductions in emissions” there will be “dire consequences”. He went on to talk about the forthcoming negotiations in Bali next week on a post-2012 framework.
Lord Rooker said; “The Bill is an unequivocal statement that the UK will do its part in the struggle against dangerous climate change and provides a framework to help us to adapt to its unavoidable impacts.”
Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con) welcomed the Bill. He noted what the opposition see as a “key deficiency” in the structure of the Bill. He said; “We find the government’s creation of a Committee on Climate Change purely to advise the Secretary of State to be a wholly inadequate vehicle to bring science to the heart of this great endeavour.”
He also added that overall responsibility for climate change should be with the prime minister and that there should be annual targets.
Lord Teverson (Lib Dem) said the Bill is “the most important of this session”. He talked about areas where the Bill “needs to be more fit for purpose”. The Liberal Democrats believe that a 2 degree goal should be included in the Bill. Teverson encouraged the increase of the emissions reduction target to 80 per cent rather than 60 per cent. He also called for all greenhouse gases to be included in the targets, not just carbon dioxide. He also questioned the inclusion of emissions from aviation and shipping and accounting.
Other issues discussed during the debate include; infrastructure, extreme weather, waste management, carbon credits, the Stern report, solar power, adaptation, nuclear power, emergency planning, China and India, airport capacity, land use, fly-tipping, mitigation, the price of oil, foot and mouth and avian flu.
Lord Rooker concluded the debate. He said “This is such a vital Bill and there is no government majority in this place, as everyone knows. There is a degree of consensus but, following the initial scrutiny, there will obviously be a desire to improve the Bill in lots of ways. That is something that they understand in the other place.”
Progress
House of Lords
First reading: November 14 2007 [HL Bill 7]
Second reading: November 27 2007
Committee of the Whole House:
Report stage:
Third reading: March 31 2008
House of Commons
First reading: April 1 2008
Second reading: no date
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